Japan’s Consumer Electronics Decline
If you were born in the 80s/90s, there is no doubt that you grew up with Japanese electronics brands. Sony, Sharp, Panasonic and JVC to name a few. I can even remember at one point, if it wasn’t a Japanese brand TV or audio player, people didn’t want it. The other options were basically invisible or nonexistent.
Photos taken at a local auto goods and service store called Yellow Hat.
It’s a fact that when it comes to quality, Japanese brands are of the highest caliber. But over the years, Chinese brands have been ramping up on their quality control gaining more trust in the minds of consumers. The term “made in China” carries far less stigma than it did a decade ago. While disposable income has increased over the past decades for many nations, inflation has held down the actual increase in spending power leading consumers to search for alternatives that fit their needs and means. in my opinion that opened the minds of consumers to Chinese electronics. The first thing was the invention of the iPhone, designed in the US, made in China. People got to see first hand what “made in China” was capable of and began to trust it as Apple, the company many have trusted for years slapped their logo and seal of approval on it. The other thing that happened I believe is the easy access to alternatives especially with the rise of Amazon, EBay and Alibaba. Before, consumers only saw what the electronics stores brought in. Once the online market places started selling electronics from China and the quality and price of the products reached an equilibrium, the electronic stores quickly followed, fulfilling the needs of more price conscious consumers. Today, many still prefer Japanese consumer electronics especially when it comes to cameras,TVs, audio equipment, printers and game consoles. However, there are now countless alternatives ( not so much for games) and though most would prefer to buy the Japanese brands, they realize that the premium price and quality do not out way the quality and lower cost of the alternatives like it once did. Do you agree? Sony Tv over a Hisense or Changhong? Those brands probably don’t ring a bell for most even though they are two of the top Tv manufacturers out of China. In summary, people are getting poorer and looking for the best deals when it comes to consumer electronics. I’ll leave you with some interesting statistics bellow.
Two things happened
source: ChatGPT
It's like that hear too. The car audio guys that are deep into it are the only ones really buying new stuff...
Yeah, they still have the die hard constumers and everyone still trusts the Japanese brands.
Very interesting post! Good info!
Thanks 🙏 things and times have changed.
Yeah, time doesn't forgive anyone or anything.
I remember using all those companies products you mentioned above back in those days.
When it comes to durability and strong strongness, I give it to Japanese. Their products are always topnotch with every part consisting of great quality. It is amazing how time flies and people start shifting their preferences due cost and other factors.
Right, it's all we knew. These days most of the electric companies aren't doning half as well as they used to with exports. Imagine Sharp made the first cell phones with a camera. Now you lucky if you find a person with Sharp phone.
I read an interesting thing the other day. That when a Western company contracts a factory in China to make something for them, if they don't pay an agreed upon extra amount, the Chinese factory will order extra (but cheaper) material and will run after hours to make virtual identical items for the black market. Almost no Western companies pay this, which is why we get all these copycat Chinese products, copycat products that are rapidly increasing in quality as these Chinese factories grow richer and can afford better quality material for their clone products.
All markets copy the leader in the beginning. In the 50s and 60s, Japanese products were also just clones of Western products. But specifically in the case of China, there seems to be some different dynamics here that are making it a unique case.
Ah yes I've heard about these copies. There are quite a few iPhone clones that seem identical. If only there was a way to know the good copies from the rest. But China has really stepped their game up, it's no longer a 30/70 hit miss, it's more like 65/35.
Interesting , I forgot about that, so it's like Japan is getting a taste of their own medicine 💊 I think China has the population to pull off the work. Something missing from Japan and the USA. Japanese because of the low birthrate, the US because it's the US 😂
Hmm
What if the person was not living in Japan?
Is it possible to still be familiar with Japanese electric bands?
Of course dear, ask your parents. I'm an older dude, 42 to be exact. I'm guessing you are in you're early 20s? If so, that's the time the transition started.
I really believe if Japan can have the right strategy, they can really bounce back upward
Indeed, brand Japan is strong but they don't have that mass production low cost formula down yet. But once they, it's an easy bounce back.
That's right, we also remember this friend's name and we remember when we first bought our speakers, they were of the same brand and their sound was very good, but later we switched to other brands, so his name. It ended.